Gallery: The Grand Marshall of East Lake Shore Drive

There's enough room in their 3,800-square-foot home in a Beaux Arts co-op building on East Lake Shore Drive for a family of five, but Stephen and Marie Sullivan have decided that their two children, a toddler and an infant, will soon need a different kind of space: a back yard. Reluctantly, they have put the three-bedroom, sixth-floor unit on the market for $2.30 million. Ann George of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage is their listing agent.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ann George, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

When architect Benjamin Marshall designed the building in 1912, his first of five buildings on East Lake Shore Drive, his goal was to lure affluent people out of grand mansions and into urban apartment living. He finished the rooms with details they would find familiar, such as ornamental plaster work on the ceiling. Some of this detail was intact in 2000 when the Sullivans bought their home, but much had been removed. They launched a restoration project.

Original details have been rehabilitated or replicated so carefully that it's difficult to sort what's authentic from what's a replacement. "It all works very well together in the library," Mr. Sullivan, a trader, said of the paneling, plasterwork and hand-carved mantel, a mix of old and new.

The dining room is fine for entertaining, but "we eat most of our meals at the small table" in the window bay at the far end, Ms. Sullivan said. Both early risers, they like to watch the sun rise over Lake Michigan from those east-facing windows. The white and seafoam green of the walls was chosen expressly to suggest the lake.

In the evening, they're more likely to be in the living room, whose north-facing windows frame views of lights along the lakefront skyline. "At night, the view of the lake is just darkness," Mr. Sullivan said, "so we look at the city then, instead."

At the point where Lake Shore Drive bends around the building, Mr. Marshall created a sunlit "orangerie," or garden room. Finished now with a silk wall covering and re-created vintage limestone floors, it's the TV and family room, "where we get the most casual," Ms. Sullivan said.

Originally intended to be used only by servants, the kitchen is tucked into the interior of the building, one of only two rooms without a view of Lake Michigan. It retains its original footprint, but with modern finishes and appliances. While it lacks the breadth of a kitchen in a single-family home, "it has as much storage as you'd get in a house," Ms. George said.

A pantry next to the kitchen offers more storage but also acts as staging area for the dining room or could be used for children's homework and art projects.

Combining two smaller sleeping quarters into the master bedroom gave it the space modern couples expect, as well as ample closets, seen along the far wall. Not visible at left is a raised sitting area in a window bay that was originally an open porch, probably a cigar smoker's haven, Mr. Sullivan said.

The master bedroom and another bedroom next door share a view over Lake Shore Drive to Ohio Street Beach and Navy Pier, whose lighted Ferris wheel and fireworks are visual treats that never lose their luster, the Sullivans said.

The East Lake Shore Drive neighborhood, with its row of vintage buildings and its intimate park space tucked into an elbow of the Drive, puts the Sullivans near restaurants, beaches and other pleasures. All it lacks is something two growing kids need: a yard to spill out into.

This Lincoln Park house amply opens to the outdoors, set on a quiet block with easy access to restaurants, CTA and other urban amenities. It will soon be for sale for just under $1.75 million.
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